Xavier Rudd says Whistler inspired new didge song

And then you can hear Xavier Rudd and the hum, his didgeridoo instrument that has audiences raving and mesmerized at the same time.

Returning to B.C. from his native Australia, Rudd says hes keen to try out new songs like B.C. People at this weeks show.

"A lot of inspiration from that song came from the people of Whistler, and from my respect for the people of B.C.," he says.

The one man act, features Rudd on didgeridoo as well as six- and 12-string guitar  all at the same time.

A stomp box, made from pine with a plywood box top, helps create his unique sound.

Poised in front of the multi-instrument combination, Rudd strikes a more unusual image than do most solo performers.

He talks about the didgeridoo, an instrument made famous by Aboriginal people of Australia. Historians believe the didge was played by the tribes of Eastern Kimberly and the northern third of the Northern Territory.

Part of the woodwind family of instruments, the instrument is made of an unstopped hollowed piece of bamboo about four or five feet long, and five centimetres wide.

"The didge is one of those instruments that has world-wide respect," says Rudd.

"As I got older, I was always intrigued by the instrument."

Another new song, as yet unnamed, is about his experience growing up in Victoria, Australia "where there was a lack of understanding and exploring of aboriginal culture."

Rudd says hell probably wait to return home to get some help with naming that track.

The calming tone of the didge is sometimes meditative, says the performer, who had to learn circle breathing (breathing out of your mouth and in through your nose at the same time) in order to master playing the instrument.

"Your muscles feel energized, I think its definitely a form of mediation."

A natural musician in the making while growing up, he was making sounds from "his mothers vacuum parts" around age six.

He plays from his album
To Let
in this current tour, where he also visits eastern Canada for the first time.

Rudd says the story behind naming this album is a long one, but "its basically about a frame of mind, to let people be free, and its based on experience walking with my son on the beach."

Music collaboration on the album
To Let
included Aztec drumming from Justin Dwyer, and bass notes from Grant Cummerford.

Based in Torquay near Melbourne, Rudd plays in both Canada and Australia nowadays and has toured Australia extensively this past year.

He finds inspiration for songs in surfing "while riding the wave" and parenting.